Walk It Off, Danny
by Wenwalke
Summary: No real plot to this little one shot, just an excuse to whump Danny and if you look hard enough, a tiny bit of Steve whump thrown in.


**A/N:** This story came about because I damaged the ligaments of my left knee. So, poor Danny had to suffer a similar, but worse, injury. Set somewhere near the end of Season One. Big thanks to Cubit2 for returning the favor of beta'ing my story after I beta'd 'Once the Dust Settles' for her. If you haven't read that story, or any of Cubit2's stories, I suggest you do, they're really good.

 **Disclaimer:** Don't own Five-0 they belong to CBS, just wish I did.

 **Walk It Off, Danny**

It started off as a typical day for Five-0. The team had split up to go question two suspects in a double homicide. Chin and Kono going to the home of Fred Lambton, Steve and Danny going to Kim Kai's home. Both suspects knew the two victims and had been involved in a previous altercation with them.

Turned out though, that both suspects were at Kai's home when the partners arrived. Steve parked the Camaro down the street from the house where the two men sat talking on the front porch.

"Wait while I call this in, Steven. We shouldn't take on these two by ourselves. You read their profiles, they're both shooters." As he spoke Danny called Chin letting him know both men were at their location and to get over fast. He had a restraining hand on his partner's arm, stopping him from exiting the car. Thankfully, the ex-SEAL didn't pull away but waited for the call to finish.

Steve looked at Danny as he put his phone away. He'd come to accept that allowing his partner to call for backup was easier than listening to the rant that not waiting brought about. Although, sometimes it was fun to wind the Jersey native up and watch him blow. "Backups coming?"

"Yes, backup's coming." Danny sighed and ran a hand down his face. He knew that Steve wouldn't actually wait for the backup to arrive, but at least it was on its way.

"Good, then let's go." With that Steve exited the car and started walking towards the house.

Danny threw his hands up in exasperation and moved to follow his partner. "Steve, wait." He hissed.

But Steve chose to ignore him and carried on, something Danny had come to expect in the nine months they'd been working together.

Lambton spotted them first and both men took off running down the street in the opposite direction. The partners gave chase, following as the two men ran into an abandoned school yard.

Danny caught up with Lambton, tackled him to the ground, and swung a punch knocking the guy out cold. While flipping him over and cuffing him, Danny realised that his right knee was protesting, so he sat where he was on the ground and rubbed it for a few seconds. It was the same knee he'd injured a few months prior, again from running after his partner.

Steve's suspect had turned, a high fence blocking his way. Now he was running at a right angle to the way he had been going. Steve also turned, and seeing Danny rubbing his knee, yelled "Are you okay?"

"I'll live, but no thanks to you."

Satisfied, Steve carried on after his suspect, but Kai decided to start shooting back at him, causing Steve to duck and weave as he ran.

At the sound of shots, Danny pushed himself to his feet and ran after the two men to provide backup for his partner. But before Danny could reach him, Steve went down as a bullet hit his vest, at least that's where Danny hoped it hit. As he limped up to cover the downed SEAL he fired at Kai, striking him in the leg, causing the man to fall to one knee.

As soon as Kai went down, Steve surged up and ran to him, knocking the injured man to the ground, and cuffing him.

Danny stopped where Steve had previously fallen, and now sat on a handy bench, knowing he'd really damaged his knee by running again after he'd first injured it. He was glad his partner appeared to be okay though.

Steve looked over, and seeing Danny sitting down, made a smart remark. "Yeah, take it easy why don't you, let me do all the work."

Danny decided not to say anything, just sat there rubbing his knee, while Steve pulled Kai over and dropped him down besides Lambton.

Just then, Chin and Kono arrived with HPD right behind them.

Chin walked over to Steve, who was busy examining the bullet in his vest. "Hey, brah, I think you should get checked out, EMT's are on route."

"Nah, I'm fine, just a bruise." He removed his vest and lifted his shirt to check. A bruise was already forming on the right side of his chest. "Thanks for your concern, Chin, I appreciate it." Raising his voice a little louder, he continued, "Not like my partner over there who hasn't even bothered to come see if I'm okay."

Kono had gone to Danny, concerned that he was too quiet, and that he was rubbing his knee. She reckoned he should be yelling at his partner about now, for getting shot, once again. "What's going on Danny?" She asked in a low voice.

"Hurt my knee when I tackled my guy back there." Danny indicated to where Steve and Chin were standing.

"And you ran over here after, why?"

"Had no choice, Kono. The idiot was being shot at and needed backup."

Kono knew about knee injuries from her time as a pro surfer and was immediately concerned. The right knee was definitely swelling up, the pant leg looked strained as it confined the knee.

"Can you stand?"

"Nope! Think I've really damaged it this time." Danny continued to hold his knee, rubbing at the back and sides. The pain seemed to circle around the whole knee, but was worse in the back.

Steve lowered his shirt and looked over at Danny. Worry immediately bloomed when he saw the low conversation and Danny still sitting on the bench.

"You get hit, Danny?" he asked in concern as he walked over with Chin.

"No, Steven, I hurt my knee, again, thanks to you not waiting for backup."

"Oh, that old boo boo, again? Come on, walk it off, Danny." Before Kono could stop him, Steve grabbed the blond's hand, pulling him up.

Danny cried out as his knee buckled and he started to fall. Kono managed to grab his other arm and lower him back to the bench.

"What the hell!" Steve exclaimed.

"Asshole." Danny groaned in pain. "Get away from me!" His left hand pushed Steve's away from him while the right went back to massaging his damaged knee.

Kono made eye contact with Chin, who got the message and immediately led a reluctant SEAL away to the waiting ambulance.

Steve didn't get a chance to see his partner again until they got to the hospital. Chin and Kono had done a good job of keeping them apart.

Once he'd been checked and released, no broken ribs just lots of bruising, Steve went in search of Danny. What he found was Chin and Kono sitting in the waiting room, Chin looking worried, Kono looking mad.

"Where's Danny?"

"What do you care?" Kono railed at him standing up and walking towards him with her fists clenched.

Steve was taken aback, not understanding where Kono's anger was coming from.

"He's in surgery, Steve." Chin moved to intercept his cousin. "Calm down, Kono."

"Surgery? But he only hurt his knee?" Last time his partner had hardly been stopped by the knee injury. It hadn't been that bad, why was this time different?

"Oh, and to you a knee injury is only a "little boo boo", right?" Kono asked sharply.

Steve had the presence of mind to remain quiet as Chin moved his cousin over to the far side of the waiting room. When he came back he just looked sadly at Steve.

"I don't understand, Chin." He knew that he was missing something if surgery was involved, that Danny must be injured more than he realised.

"This time Danny completely tore his ACL. He pulled the other ligaments around his knee too. The doctors need to repair the ACL or he could have trouble walking, permanently."

"What?" Steve dropped down into a seat, staring at Chin as if he'd just told him the sun had fallen. Danny couldn't be that badly injured, not from just running, surely.

Kono stood then, moving over to the two men, anger still flashing in her eyes.

"Yes, his 'little boo boo" could cost him his career and all because you wouldn't wait for backup. Isn't, that right? You made him go in and back you up. He had to run after you even though he'd already hurt his knee taking down Lambton because you were being shot at by Kai. If he hadn't he could probably have rehabbed it again like he did before. But now he's having surgery to replace the ACL and it'll be months before he can get back to normal. Months when I'm sure he's going to be worrying about you running into situations without proper back up. Without him. Months where he's going to hurt and all because you couldn't wait a few minutes. Sometimes I wonder why he even agreed to be your partner." Kono finally wound down from a rant Danny would have been proud of, if he'd been there to hear it.

"He didn't." Steve muttered to himself.

"He didn't what, Steve?" Chin asked, confused.

"He didn't agree to be my partner. I never really asked him, just made him my partner when I took over my father's case."

The cousins stared at him. They'd known how the two partners met, but had never realised that Danny had been conscripted into Five-0.

"Seriously?" Kono threw at him as she left the waiting room, needing to cool off by herself.

Hours later Steve sat beside his partner's bed waiting for him to wake up. He'd thought long and hard about what Kono had ranted at him and he knew that he owed his partner an apology. More than one apology, actually. He'd looked up the surgery required to fix a torn ACL and all the work needed to rehab it over the next few months. He'd talked to Danny's doctors about what was required and what to expect. If his partner would forgive him for being such an "asshole", as he'd called him at the scene, then he'd be there every step of the way. But first of all, Danny had to wake up and they had to talk.

Steve was once again watching a muted video of the ACL surgery so he missed the moment Danny opened his eyes and looked at him.

"Hey."

"Danny?" Steve put his phone away and moved closer to the bed, easily fielding his partner's attempt to remove the nasal cannula supplying him with oxygen. "Leave that alone, your oxygen levels are low."

"Don't like it." Danny whined.

"Too bad, it stays."

Danny relented and lay there looking at the SEAL. Something was off with him, he could tell. "You okay? Are your ribs broken?"

"What? Yes, I'm okay, Danny. Just bruising, that's all, I swear." Steve settled on the side of the bed against Danny's hip. "We need to talk about our partnership." He started.

"Yeah, I know." Danny interrupted not meeting his friend's eyes. "You need to get a new partner now. I understand."

"No! Will you shut up and let me finish?" Steve cleared his throat and tried again. "Danny, I need to ask you something I should have asked you nine months ago."

Danny, who had been looking anywhere but at Steve, looked up.

"Will you be my partner, Detective Williams?" Steve asked formally. "I know you need to rehab your knee for a while, but when that's done, I want you to be my partner."

There was silence for more time than Steve was comfortable with, so when Danny opened his mouth to speak, he feared the answer would be no.

"I would like very much to be your partner, Commander McGarrett." Danny stated just as formally as Steve had asked. "But I'm not sure that will be possible now." Pain flitted across his handsome features as he gestured towards his right knee elevated on a pillow.

"I'm sorry you hurt your knee, Danny. Even sorrier that it was because of me. But it will heal, and you will be my partner again." Steve put his hand on Danny's right hand where it lay on the bed. "I don't want to do this job without you, Danny. If it weren't for you, Chin and Kono, I'd have gone back into the SEAL's already. Them, and especially you, are the reason I've stayed here." He squeezed the hand under his and then released it.

Danny said nothing - for once he was speechless.

"Also, I'm sorry I made light of your injury. I didn't realize how serious damaging an ACL could be until Kono let me have it earlier in the waiting room. You'd have been proud of the rant she came up with." Steve smiled when he thought of their rookie putting him in his place. "I've since talked to your doctors and read everything I could find on line. Watched some videos of the surgery, too."

"Wow, you really are on a guilt trip, huh Babe?"

"Yes, because I am guilty. I should never have pulled you to your feet. I know you wouldn't just sit there if something wasn't wrong. The concern on Kono's face should have been enough to make me think. Can you forgive me for being an asshole as you so eloquently put it?"

"Let me see." Danny placed his hand on his chin as if thinking hard about his answer. "Yep, I can forgive you because that's what partners do, they forgive each other when they screw up." Danny tapped Steve's hand that was still on the bed next to his own. "But you know that I won't be able to drive for weeks, right? That means my partner will need to drive me everywhere." A smile spread across the blond's handsome face. "Oh wait, you do that now anyway."

"No problem, Danno, I can do that." Steve smiled too.

"Also, you'll have to drive my beautiful daughter, because I can't pick her up or take her back to Rachel's."

"I can do that too." Steve affirmed.

Danny's eyes sparkled with mischief. "But can you do it at a law-a-biding speed, or do I need to ask Chin, or Kono?"

"For Grace, I'll obey every traffic law out there." Steve stood. "In fact, why don't I give Rachel a call right now and see if I can pick Grace up after school and bring her to see you." His phone was already in hand.

"Whoa, how about we find out if I can go home first? I don't think I need to stay so you could bring her to my place." Danny pushed the call button for the nurse as he spoke.

"Nope, you have to stay here until tomorrow, then you're coming to my place for at least a month." At his partner's open mouthed look, Steve continued, "I spoke to your doctors, remember? They want you here overnight and said that you shouldn't be alone for a while."

"So, you thought that you'd hijack my life, again? Huh?"

"Nope, just trying to be a good partner, partner." Steve laughed as he left the room to make his call, leaving a stunned Danny staring after him.

 **The End**


End file.
